Relations between Turkey and Syria in the 1980’s and 1990’s: Political Islam, Muslim Brotherhood and Intelligence Wars

Assoc. Prof. Behlül Özkan will have a talk on his study titled "Relations between Turkey and Syria in the 1980s and 1990s: Political Islam, Muslim Brotherhood and Intelligence Wars" at Özyeğin University on 28th of February, 2020. 

The talk will take place at SCOLA.460 conference room in Özyeğin University Çekmeköy Campus and it will start at 1:00 pm. 

Abstract

From the start of the 1980s until the 2011 Arab Uprisings, relations between Turkey, Turkish Islamists, Syria, and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood remained highly complex. Based on the information available from open sources and newspaper archives, this study terms the conflict between the Turkish and Syrian intelligence services that broke out in the 1980s as an “intelligence war.” Both countries viewed the PKK and the Muslim Brotherhood – domestic enemies which they were trying to stamp out – as useful actors to be played off against the other party. While the Syrian/PKK part of the equation was frequently alluded to by the Turkish media and Turkish academia, Turkey’s relations with the Muslim Brotherhood were gradually forgotten. Though open support for the Brotherhood was never an element in Ankara’s official foreign policy, Turkey’s intelligence and security forces did establish ties to the Brotherhood in order to strengthen Turkey’s hand against Syria and made use of the organization insofar as it was in their interest to do so.

Bio

Behlül Özkan received his PhD from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University in 2009. He is currently Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at Marmara University, Istanbul. Özkan is the author of From the Abode of Islam to the Turkish Vatan: Making of a National Homeland in Turkey (Yale University Press, 2012). He also contributed op-eds to New York Times, Huffington Post, Birgün, Open Democracy. In recent years his academic studies have been focused on Political Islam in Turkey and Europe.